Infant auditory perception: Tonal masking

The results of an earlier study (Olsho, 1984) indicated that 5- to 8-month-old infants were relatively better at discriminating among high-frequency pitches than low. In the present study, sensory and nonsensory explanations for that effect were evaluated by examining infants' performance in a task requiring similar sensory processing but differing in the demands placed on processes such as memory. Infants' ability to resolve frequency was tested using a tonal masking paradigm, the psychophysical tuning curve. Twenty-four infants were tested at probe frequencies ranging from 500 to 4000 Hz; a group of young adults served as a comparison. Masked and unmasked thresholds were estimated using the visually reinforced head turn procedure in conjunction with an adaptive psychophysical method. Although infants' tuning curves fell below those of adults (indicating poorer performance), the widths and slopes of the infants' curves were not different from the adults'. Moreover, the difference between age groups remained constant across probe frequencies. These findings imply that by 5 months of age, the infant's ability to resolve sound frequency is similar to the adult's.     

“鸡尾酒会”环境中的知觉线索的去掩蔽作用

在有多人同时说话的嘈杂环境中,为什么具有正常听力的人能在一定的程度上听懂目标语句？研究这个著名的“鸡尾酒会”问题的一个新进展是将干扰言语的作用区分出了能量掩蔽和信息掩蔽两种成分。与发生在外周系统的能量掩蔽不同,信息掩蔽发生在心理层次并受到认知过程的调节。因此,主观空间分离、与目标语句节奏相关的视觉信号以及对目标语句某些特征的熟悉程度等知觉线索都具有去掩蔽作用。考察可减少信息掩蔽的知觉线索的交互作用及其高级认知调节是今后重要的研究内容     

眼跳的双相调节理论的行为证据

为了研究眼跳的双相调节理论是否适用于人类的视觉系统,本研究测量了人类被试对分别呈现在三种眼跳时间段（基线、眼跳抑制和眼跳增强）内的光栅的朝向辨别准确率。研究发现：相对于光栅呈现在基线时间段内,被试对呈现在抑制（或增强）时间段内的光栅的朝向辨别准确率显著地更低（或更高）（实验1）;另外,只有使用低或中等空间频率光栅作为测试刺激时,才有这种双相调节作用（实验2）。这些结果表明：人类的视觉系统在眼跳过程中存在双相调节机制,并且这种双相调节机制具有刺激选择性。     

What do you think I think you think?: Strategic reasoning in matrix games

In reasoning about strategic interpersonal situations, such as in playing games, an individual's representation of the situation often includes not only information about the goals and rules of the game, but also a mental model of other minds. Often such mental models involve a hierarchy of reflexive reasoning commonly employed in social situations ("What do you think I think you think..."), and may be related to the developmental notion of 'theory of mind'. In two experiments, the authors formally investigate such interpersonal recursive reasoning in college-age adults within the context of matrix games. Participants are asked to predict the moves of another player (experimenter's confederate) in a two-choice, sequential-move game that may terminate at various stages with different payoffs for each player. Participants are also asked to decide optimally on their own moves based on the prediction made. Errors concerning the prediction, or translation of those predictions into decisions about one's action, were recorded. Results demonstrate the existence of a "default" mental model about the other player in the game context that is dynamically modified as new evidence is accumulated. Predictions about this other player's behavior are, in general, used consistently in decision-making, though the opponent tends to be modeled, by default, to behave in a myopic fashion not anticipating the participant's own action.     

Temporal cue–target overlap is not essential for backward inhibition in task switching

Lag 2 repetition costs are a performance cost observed when participants return to a task after just one intervening trial of a different task, compared to returning after a longer interval (AB A vs. CB A sequences, where A, B, C are tasks). This effect is known as backward inhibition (BI) and is thought to reflect the need to overcome inhibition applied specifically to Task “A” during disengagement at trial n – 1. Druey and Hübner (2007) Druey, M. and Hübner, R. 2007. The role of temporal cue–target overlap in backward inhibition under task switching. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 14: 749–754. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] have suggested that employment of such a specific inhibitory mechanism relies upon the cue and the target of the task overlapping temporally. We provide evidence across three experiments (including a direct replication attempt) that this is not the case, and that the presence of task-specific BI relies to some extent on the need to translate the cue–target relationship into working memory. Additionally, we provide evidence that faster responses in no overlap conditions are driven by low-level perceptual differences between target displays across overlap conditions. We conclude that BI is an effective sequential control mechanism, employed equally in cases of temporally overlapping and temporally separated cues and targets.     

The cost of seeing the meaning: Conceptual processing of distractors triggers localized target suppression

It is often assumed that conceptual information impacts visual experience only after perceptual information has been extracted. However, the present study suggests that conceptual processing can interfere with perceptual processes, as reflected in target perception impairments that are specific to the location of conceptually salient distractors. Experiment 1 replicated previous findings that emotional distractors in a rapid serial visual presentation cause a spontaneous, spatially localized impairment in target perception, further finding that distractors that are merely featurally salient do not. Experiment 2 suggested that conceptually salient distractors that are non-emotional also elicit such spatially localized impairments, which are shorter lived than those following emotional distractors. Experiment 3 suggested that featurally salient distractors that are not conceptually salient engage a different, spatial attention mechanism. Together, these findings suggest that, whereas featurally salient distractors can capture spatial attention, conceptual distractors additionally engage mechanisms that suppress spatiotemporally competing targets.     

Backward affective priming: Even when the prime is late, people still evaluate

It is well-established that affective stimuli can prime congruent evaluations if they precede the target within a short time interval, i.e., forward affective priming. The present research examines whether similar effects occur if affective primes succeed target presentation, i.e., backward affective priming. Experiments 1 found short-lived, yet reliable backward affective priming. Experiment 2 found parallel forward affective priming in the same paradigm. Experiment 3 found forward and backward affective priming in a within-subjects design. Comparison with neutral primes suggested that the observed effects were mainly due to interference. Backward affective priming is a robust phenomenon that may reflect a rapid and continuous evaluation of environmental stimuli.     

Deeper attentional masking by lateral objects in children with autism

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is often associated with a detail-oriented perception and overselective attention in visual tasks, such as visual search and crowding. These results were obtained manipulating exclusively the spatial properties of the stimuli: few is known about the spatio-temporal dynamics of visual processing in ASD. In this study we employed an attentional masking (AM) paradigm comparing children with ASD and IQ-matched typically developing (TD) controls. The AM effect refers to an impaired identification of a target followed by a competitive masking object at different proximities in space and time. We found that ASD and TD groups did not differ in the AM effect provoked by the competitive object displayed in the same position of the target. In contrast, children with ASD showed a deeper and prolonged interference than the TD group when the masking object was displayed in the lateral position. These psychophysical results suggest that the inefficient attentional selection in ASD depends on the spatio-temporal interaction between competitive visual objects. These evidence are discussed in the light of the ASD altered neural connectivity hypothesis and the reentrant theory of perception.